Outreach: Share the love (of birds)
SCVAS periodically hosts informational tables at community events and with other conservation organizations. Spend a couple hours of your time to help these SCVAS outreach events and share your love of birds with other people! SCVAS periodically hosts informational tables at community events and with other conservation organizations. Spend a couple hours of your time to help these SCVAS outreach events and share your love of birds with other people! This month we have events with Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, Veggielution, California Native Plant Society, and Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge!
Join our email group to easily get updates about these tabling and outreach events here
Review the list of upcoming events and dates, and pick a time you can help!
Birds of the Bay at Rengstorff House in Mountain View, November 20, 11AM-2PM. Sign up here.
Education Docents: Engaged in the environment
Wetlands Discovery Program Docent
Do you love nature? Do you have experience with students or a passion for sharing an appreciation for the environment? We're looking for docents to be available on weekday mornings to volunteer in schools and lead field trips for the Wetlands Discovery Program. Volunteers teach students grade 3-5 about local wetlands, adaptations, and migration in the classroom and out in the field in this program, all while sharing their love of local birds. Minimal birding and education experience required. All volunteers must be fingerprinted, submit proof of a negative TB test, and submit a county vaccination record.
Fill out this form with interest. New volunteers will be shadowing experienced docents through the month of November.
Conservation Corner: Speaking up for wildlife
Dark Sky Symposium
The Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, and the Sierra Club Bay Alive Campaign invite you to our symposium on dark skies and bird-safe building and lighting design. The use of LED technology and energy saving lighting fixtures are bringing with them an unintended, yet pervasive and harmful effect: the over-lighting of our nights. Learn about the biological and physical effects of light at night and strategies that can guard our health and environment while providing safe and practical lighting solutions.
Please join us on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 16, for our symposium – Light at Night: A Glowing Hazard. For more information, see here and register here.
Naturalists Needed: OSCSP
Explore the Coyote Valley with us! The Oak Savanna Community Science Project is a three year project funded by the Open Space Authority to bring the community into nature and introduce high school students to community science at the North Coyote Valley Conservation Area.
Monthly Bird Surveys: Wednesday morning, once a month, 7:30-11am. Birders survey transects in the North Coyote Valley Conservation Area, making special note of breeding and nesting birds. This site is closed to the public and has been the location of birds like the Tri-colored Blackbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Lawrence's Goldfinch! The next survey will be Wednesday, November 23.
Ages 12 & up with parent participation, some birding and eBird experience preferred.
Contact programs@scvas.org with interest/questions.
Nature Shop: Helping feed the birds
SCVAS is looking for reliable volunteers to help run the nature shop on an as-needed basis. Volunteers are responsible for answering basic birding and wildlife related questions for the public over the phone and in person, entering sales in the Nature Shop, filling and cleaning the feeders and bird baths, and helping with the occasional mailing.
Contact April Austin at scvas@scvas.org for further information.
Christmas Bird Count: Gotta Count ‘em All!
The dates have been set and the circles are getting organized for the annual Christmas Bird Count, now in its 122nd year! Check out our CBC page to learn about the circles and join in the fun!